Oh, bollards! Prankster was trapped in a plastic sign for two hours… now he’s a YouTube hit

Free: The very red-faced joker waves for the camera (Picture: John Waterman/Guzelian)

Think you’re having a bad day? Spare a thought for this joker who got stuck in a traffic bollard for more than two hours when a prank went horribly wrong.

To compound his shame, a passer-by filmed the hilarious episode and posted it on YouTube – where it has become a viral hit.

Hundreds of shoppers revelled in the mystery man’s misfortune but no one came forward to help because they thought he was ‘just messing about’, said one onlooker. Eventually, someone called 999 and the joker was pulled free from the bollard by his friend and a policeman.

As the red-faced man left the scene to nurse his sore head, he was told: ‘You’re going on YouTube.’

Roofer John Waterman, 28, who caught the hilarity on his smartphone camera, said of the incident in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire: ‘It was very random. It’s not the usual thing you see in the middle of town on a Sunday lunchtime.

‘I had seen him walking with a bollard on his head five minutes earlier, but then I noticed it was pulled right down over his body. When he was finally pulled out, he was very red in the face.’

Mr Waterman added: ‘The policeman found it very amusing. He was chuckling to himself. It was probably one of his more light-hearted call outs.’